xii, 303, 16 pages ; 21 cm

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives

Includes reader's guide

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-303)

Happiness revisited : The roots of discontent ; The shields of culture ; Reclaiming experience ; Paths of liberation -- The anatomy of consciousness : The limits of consciousness ; Attention as psychic energy ; Enter the self ; Disorder in consciousness: psychic entropy ; Order in consciousness: flow ; Complexity and the growth of the self -- Enjoyment and the quality of life : Pleasure and enjoyment ; The elements of enjoyment ; The autotelic experience -- The conditions of flow : Flow activities ; Flow and culture ; The autotelic personality ; The people of flow -- The body in flow : Higher, faster, stronger ; The joys of movement ; Sex as flow ; The ultimate control: yoga and the martial arts ; Flow through the senses: the joys of seeing ; The flow of music ; The joys of tasting -- The flow of thought : The mother of science ; The rules of the games of the mind ; The play of words ; Befriending Clio ; The delights of science ; Loving wisdom ; Amateurs and professionals ; The challenge of lifelong learning -- Work as flow : Autotelic workers ; Autotelic jobs ; The paradox of work ; The waste of free time -- Enjoying solitude and other people : The conflict between being alone and being with others ; The pain of loneliness ; Taming solitude ; Flow and the family ; Enjoying friends ; The wider community -- Cheating chaos : Tragedies transformed ; Coping with stress ; The power of dissipative structures ; The autotelic self: a summary -- The making of meaning : What meaning means ; Cultivating purpose ; Forging resolve ; Recovering harmony ; The unification of meaning in life themes

1st ed. New York : Harper & Row, 1990

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